spaswinefood: Antigua's Garden Restaurants are the perfect escape

Antigua , Guatemala is a beautiful colonial town in the Guatemalan Highlands. In a colonial town the beauty often lies inside the garden wall. Antigua's garden restaurants are the perfect escape when you want to relax. In Antigua there are a number of garden restaurants where you can escape for awhile. Spaswinefood top picks are:

Café de la Escalonia
Café Barroco

Café de la Escalonia

At 5a Avenida Sur Final #36C, Antigua you will find a restaurant in a very unique setting. It is Vivero y Café de la Escalonia.

Entrance to Vivero y Cafe de la Escalonia © Spaswinefood

As you enter the vivero (garden center) to the right you will find the cafe. Vivero y Café de la Escalonia is the only garden center and cafe that I have encountered. The uniqueness of this cafe could easily make it listable in the directory of Unusual Restaurants in the world. You might wonder about putting a cafe in a garden center. However, the Central Guatemalan Highlands is know as "the land of eternal spring"; so gardens do quite well. In fact the garden created within Vivero y Café de la Escalonia just might be one of the best in Antigua.

For cafe dinning you can choose seating at the center of the garden, or on the terrace around the garden area.

Garden at Escalonia © Spaswinefood

Views of Café de la Escalonia © Spaswinefood

Now, let's take a look at seating on the terrace. There are quite a few tables to select from within the terrace area. The terrace roof is beautifully covered with flowering tubergia vines.

Tubergia vines cover the terrace roof in this seating area © Spaswinefood

Another awesome vine near the kitchen window © Spaswinefood

Escalonia © Spaswinefood

Garden at Escalonia © Spaswinefood

Wonderful seating options © Spaswinefood

Let me try to capture in writing some of the "special magic of this place". Café de la Escalonia is the ideal place for a cup of coffee or tea in a beautiful garden setting. They are WiFi friendly, making it one of the most relaxing places in Antigua to get caught up on email correspondence. I used to go there to do tarea (homework) when I was studying Spanish. The beautiful soft music playing in the background is so soothing.

Café de la Escalonia is great for a snack, breakfast or lunch. It is quite popular on the weekends and holidays when it gets lots of visitors from Guatemala City. I prefer the quiet time during the week.

Of course after you dine, you can tour the garden center at the back. It is a special treat especially for those interested in knowing something about tropical plants. Vivero y Café de la Escalonia promotes recycling and other green activities. Desfrutandodelavida blog has a detailed posting on the overall operation of La Escalonia. Check out Chow Hound's, Travel Experta's reviews.

Vivero y Cafe de la Escalonia © Spaswinefood

Café Barroco

At the north end of town, not far from Hotel Casa Santo Domingo is Café Barroco at Callejon de Concepción #2. Café Barroco is located inside a colonial house facing onto a garden. While it shares its space with Casa Chicob, a home accesories shop the two compliment each other beautifully.

Café Barroco © Spaswinefood

Café Barroco is the perfect place to sit on the patio with a tea or coffee, or to drop in for breakfast or lunch. It is awesome to sit there on the patio and just enjoy!

Café Barroco © Spaswinefood

There is such a quiet, refined slowness of pace about Café Barroco. It is wonderfully Guatemalan in that sense.

You will not find much information online about Café Barroco. I did however, discover another visitor's comment on Tripadvisor that sums up the gentle refineness of Café Barroco. I also invite you to join me in my travels in search of the best in Spaswinefood.

Sharon

December 2011